“Daily stress often predicts symptoms better than major life events.” Stress expert Elke Van Hoof on moments of recovery, microstressors, and relapse prevention.
Can you recover from stress without first understanding everything? You’ll find out in this episode of “Stress as a BFF.” Stress expert Elke Van Hoof explains why we so often keep searching for the cause of stress. But when we focus on the cause, we often focus on what’s hard for us to control. Research shows that people who can’t take their minds off stressful situations exhibit stronger and longer-lasting physical stress responses.
When it comes to recovering from stress that makes you sick, the nature of the stressor is far less important than how long your stress response system remained active. Two people can experience completely different situations and still end up with exactly the same pattern of exhaustion. Recovery, therefore, is not about reconstructing the story, but about restoring the disrupted system to a state of calm.
